


Weightless

by Solanaceae



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Gen, adventures in zero g, can't believe i wrote smth with finn in it, it's okay he's like seven
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-03
Updated: 2015-07-03
Packaged: 2018-04-07 12:45:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4263726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solanaceae/pseuds/Solanaceae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Raven Reyes and the love of her life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Weightless

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kalisgirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kalisgirl/gifts).



> Request was for backstory-ish stuff and Raven (I hope you enjoy!!)

Today should have been a happy day. She had all the paperwork she needed - first perfect score on the exam, a health form with an _overruled_ stamp over the checkbox _not fit for duty_.

She was the youngest zero-g mechanic in half a century, for goodness sake. Everyone said she was lucky, brilliant, talented. She knew she was.

(And her boyfriend was in Lockup because she couldn’t wait a few more weeks to take a spacewalk.)

"You almost ready?" Sinclair tapped the airlock glass, voice muffled. Raven shook herself.

_Geez, get over yourself. You're going for a spacewalk, this is literally everything you've ever wanted._

The suit fitted perfectly, though it still felt strange, crinkling with her every movement, strangely restrictive in its bulk. (Once she was out in space, it wouldn't even register, but she wasn't supposed to know that, was she?) She lifted one arm, flexed her gloved fingers, then slipped the clear dome of her helmet on and fastened it to the collar of her suit. A faint hiss filled her ears as the now-airtight space filled with oxygen.

She gave Sinclair a thumbs up.

***

Zero-g felt like peace. Once she finished the repairs - a couple loose bolts on one of the vents, nothing a hefty wrench couldn’t fix - she was free to spend the rest of her oxygen allotment floating through nothing, turning slowly like a planet in orbit, the grey cable undulating behind her like seaweed in the current.

“ _Everything a-okay out there?_ ” Sinclair’s voice crackled in over the radio, and Raven paused before pressing the radio button on the inside of her sleeve.

“Just fine.”

“ _Oxygen levels still green?_ ”

She scowled slightly. “Sinclair, I’m not that dumb. I know what I’m doing.” _This isn’t my first time out,_ she wanted to say, but that would be stupid.

A chuckle came in over the radio, punctuated by faint static. “ _Hey, y’know, it’s my job to worry._ ”

“Don’t make those grey hairs even worse,” she shot back, and heard him laugh again before she shut off the radio.

She spread her arms wide, her eyes drifting half shut. The sun reflecting off Mecha Station was blinding. It almost looked beautiful from here.

***

A heart murmur. She was almost grounded on the Ark for the rest of her life because of a _heart murmur_. It still drove her almost crazy thinking about it. A lifetime trapped in a metal box _would_ have driven her crazy, she knew that much.

_Stupid heart._

On her more cynical days, she wondered if she had inherited the heart condition from her mother - if even her genes were working to ruin her life. If everything she did, everything she struggled for, was ultimately useless because of something beyond her control. Perfect scores notwithstanding, she couldn’t study her heart into submission.

***

“I want to go out _there_.”

Finn paused halfway through tearing the cover off of his ration pack to blink at her, startled. “Out - in space, you mean?”

Raven tapped her knuckles against the glass, nodding. “Yeah. Y’know, like a zero-g mechanic.” There was a woman down the hall who worked in zero gravity, the kind of twenty-something with lanky hair and a permanent frown, like life itself was too stressful for her.

Raven had once seen her floating past a window, eyes closed and a serene smile on her face. She had looked _happy_ , one hand loosely cupped around the tool belt at her waist, the other flexing slightly as though she was swimming.

“Well,” Finn chuckled, ripping the ration pack open and passing her the container. “I bet you’d be a great one of those.”

“I’m serious, though.” She leaned against the wall, propping her head on the windowsill. “I can take the test by the time I’m eighteen, everyone says it’s hard but I’ve got years and years to study. There’s no reason I can’t go out in space.”

“Spacewalking does look like fun.” He nudged her with his elbow, giving her a crooked smile. “Don’t forget to eat, though.”

She tore the bread in half and kept one piece, passing the other to Finn. “I couldn’t stand it if I had to spend the rest of my life stuck here.”

***

Spacewalking was what she missed most on the ground.

After the initial sense of wonder wore off - after she stopped smelling every flower and laughing every time it rains - she found herself remembering how it felt to float weightless with nothing but a line of cable keeping her tied down to the Ark. Gravity down on Earth was subtly _different_ from that on the Ark, somehow more constant, more of a solid tug on the bottom of her feet.

Grounding her more, one might say.

And there was no way to escape it. She’d lost that feeling of freedom the moment her escape pod had entered the atmosphere, a fiery meteor plunging to the earth like a wingless bird.

***

“What was it like?”

Raven looked up from the gunpowder she had been sorting into smaller piles, setting down her tweezers. “You really shouldn’t sneak up on me while I’m playing with explosives, you know.”

“Sorry.” Octavia didn’t look particularly apologetic, but then again, she rarely did. She stood in the doorway, framed by the nearly blinding light of the evening sun - when had it gotten so late? Raven had a tendency to lose track of time, but she hadn’t even realized that noon had come and gone. As if to remind her of that fact, her stomach grumbled softly.

“It’s fine.” Raven unstrapped her goggles, wiping the back of her hand across her forehead. “I was almost done.” She undid her hair, shaking it out and running her fingers through it. “Don’t suppose you’ve got anything to eat, do you?”

An apple  tumbled into Raven’s lap. “Can I come in?”

“Sure.”

Octavia entered the tent and sat on the edge of the table, elbow coming perilously close to knocking a jar of rocket fuel off. Raven reached over and slid it further in.

“Did you need something?”

Octavia nodded. “I was just... wondering. What’s it like, out in space?”

Ah. Of course. Raven had felt trapped in the Ark, but Octavia had lived her entire life in a hole under the floor.

She took her time considering the question, turning an empty bullet casing over in her hands. “It’s sort of like swimming,” she finally said. “But only ‘cause you’re floating, there’s no drag when you try to move or anything. It feels really - free.”

“Huh.” Octavia didn’t look nearly as impressed as Raven might have thought she would be. “The ground seems more free. There’s unlimited oxygen, for one thing. Seems like that alone makes it better.”

  
Raven shrugged. “Sure, I guess.” 

It didn't feel like it, though. Spacewalking was peace and quiet, was like existing all alone in the universe. The ground was loud and dirty and bright and crowded, even if it was beautiful.

"Well, anyways." Octavia hopped down off the table. "Clarke wanted to know how many bullets you've gotten done?"

***

At night, she lay on her back under the trees and stared up through the criss-crossed branches at the stars. They looked more hazy from here, not the sharp pinpricks they were from space. Still, they felt familiar.

She could get used to this.

Her eyes drifted shut and she was floating again, cradled in the silence of space, drifting between the stars.


End file.
